Soon the downtown Berkeley Post Office is going to be offered for sale by the United States Postal Service, which supposedly is in a very serious financial situation and facing insolvency. However, our Berkeley Post Office is an historic building built in 1915 with murals by well-known artists funded under the New Deal by the Works Progress Administration. Instead of using this Berkeley landmark, the postal service will pay a high rent in the downtown area for a lesser space.

Many Berkeley citizens are opposed to the sale of the historic post office building. The building was paid for by our taxes, and many think that the building should be offered to the city for $1, as is required by some preservation law. Despite USPS claims, it will not be cheaper to rent a downtown location for the postal service. The figures regarding USPS solvency are in question. www.savethepostoffice.com can be reached at admin@savethepostoffice.com.

On Wednesday, November 14th, rally at the Post Office at 2000 Alston Street, Berkeley and march to Constitution Plaza on Shattuck to oppose the sale.

On November 20th, come to a public meeting where the USPS will explain the proposal and hear comments on the post office building sale. The hearing will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 20, 2012, at the Berkeley Public High School Florence Schwimly Little Theater, 1980 Allston Way in the High School Auditorium. Representatives of the USPS and Berkeley will be present. Be sure to be there!

Written comments are also being accepted until December 7, 2012. Please submit written comments to:

The Postal Service pleads financial necessity in its decision to sell the Berkeley Downtown Post office and other historic central post offices around the country. In fact, Congress has fed the USPS several poison pills to assure its insolvency and thus turn its Constitutionally mandated public service over to the private sector.

Moreover, the USPS last July negotiated an exclusive contract with the giant commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis to market the public's property and to advise it which post offices to sell. It is a real estate portfolio worth billions, and it includes a national gallery of public art paid for and owned by American citizens. CBRE is chaired and effectively owned by Richard C. Blum, a UC Regent and the private equity billionaire husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein.